Community Helping Hands volunteers help Ossining, Briarcliff Manor seniors remain at home

Apr. 27, 2012

From left, Felice Petrello of Ossining, Robert Waldman of the Center for Aging Place in Pleasantville, Linda Levine of Briarcliff Manor, Janice Munson of Ossining, Naomi Landesberg of Briarcliff Manor, Bill Huppuch of Ossining, and Sara Vescio of Briarcliff Manor, meet at the Landmark Diner in Ossining April 24. The group was planning activities for Community Helping Hands, a grassroots initiative to help the elderly of Ossining and Briarcliff Manor to stay in their homes by offering them transportation services, friendly visits, and social events. / Seth Harrison/The Journal News

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Community Helping Hands has been a huge source of relief for 88-year-old Marie Leibold.

For the past year, the agency’s volunteer Bill Huppuch has driven her to various doctor’s appointments, the pharmacy, post office and bank. Her daughters are busy so the rides, she said, have been “extremely helpful.”

“I can’t even buy him a cup of coffee because he says it’s all volunteer,” she said.

Leibold is currently the only member of Community Helping Hands (CHH), a grassroots initiative dedicated to helping seniors over 60 in Ossining and Briarcliff Manor stay in their own homes. Leibold lived alone in Ossining until earlier this year when she moved into Atria Senior Living in Briarcliff Manor after being hospitalized because she needed oxygen, she said.

Even so, she continues to receive services from CHH.

“All I know is that when I need them, they are right there,” said Leibold. “I don’t hesitate to call them in an emergency.”

While the organization began to take root three years ago, it will have its official opening on May 8. The free event from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Landmark Diner in Ossining will give people an opportunity to learn more about services, membership and volunteering.

“We want to make it a more caring community for the elderly,” said CHH board member, Janice Munson. “Our tagline is ‘Making aging in place easier, safer and friendlier.’”

CHH was born after four women – Gloria Fried, Maureen Redmond, Diane Silverman and Laurie Sterlacci – met in early 2009 to discuss how they can help seniors remain in their homes as they aged. As the group began to grow and figure out its mission and programming, they participated in projects with other agencies, including insulating an elderly Ossining woman’s home.

Services that CHH will offer include transportation, friendly visits, errand runs, social events, as well as being a referral to other services in the county, Munson said.

CHH currently has 10 volunteers but organizers are looking to grow that number to 30, Munson said. They would also like to have an initial base of 10 members, she said. Membership dues are $60 per year and $75 for a two-person household. The nonprofit organization charges membership fees in order to pay for administrative costs and entertainment stipends, Munson said. The Briarcliff Rotary Club, she added, donated $250 that will be used to support membership fees for people who may not be able to afford it.

“We’ve worked on this project for nearly three years and so we’re ready to get started in a bigger way,” Munson said. “The community is going to make it what it is. It really is up to the residents to join in on this concept.”

Munson stressed that they are not a “taxi service.” In addition to driving to doctor’s appointments, Huppuch has served as an “advocate,” Munson said, assisting Leibold in getting her medical needs met when necessary.

“When you are older, oftentimes your vision, your hearing and your ability to walk are impaired, making you feel more vulnerable,” she said. “It’s nice to have a community helper.”

Huppuch, who retired as a principal from Hillside Elementary School in Hastings-on-Hudson in 2009, said he has the time to volunteer and that while he has been involved in planning and other aspects of the initiative, he mostly enjoys giving rides.

“She’s a delightful person. We have a good time... we share about our lives,” Huppuch, 70, said of Leibold.